Thursday, May 15, 2014

[UPDATE: Hi guys! The post that originally went up on the 15th wasn't complete. Here's the final version. Sorry about that! ~Jenn]

As some of you may know, I moved to the UK in February for a job, having *finally* finished my degree. (I'm going back to Canada next week for my convocation to celebrate this milestone, which has me over the moon.) I thought I'd have more time to devote to my blogging pursuits, both here and over on I Read Good, but I'm still struggling with it even though I am supposed to have more downtime than before. Reading's not a problem -- I routinely devour a couple books a week -- but I do find it challenging to sit down and write my reviews and schedule guest posts and try to come up with creative content. This is something that's always in the back of my mind but it's been taking up my brain power than usual since we're resurrecting "When I'm not writing" next week. It's a feature that I love organising but I do wonder:

How many hours should I be spending on blogging in a week?

Am I burning out?

How am I going to keep things fresh for myself, let alone the readers?

I know that many of the Team Tynga's readers are bloggers themselves so maybe this post is more of a cry for inspiration. I love books and being a part of the book blogging community but there are days when it's a struggle to sit down and blog. And it makes me so grateful to be co-blogging here on Team Tynga's Reviews since I get to share the responsibilities on this blog with my lovely friends. For me, co-blogging has been really fun and it's one of the things I love most about blogging: I've gotten to know these wonderful people and talk about books even more! It's definitely helped keep my interesting in blogging alive and well. I occasionally think about giving up my own blog but I like having a site that I have complete control over too much to stop writing on it, even though I post less than I would like.

So my question for you is:

How do you guys find time for everything?Share your tips in the comments, please!

Soapboxing is our platform for talking about books and book-related topics that matter to us. Soapboxing posts may be rants, they may highlight awesome or terrifying trends, or they might tackle bookish issues on our minds…The content will vary but the posts will (hopefully) never be boring!

12 People left their mark' :

Aw, it's sad to see your doubts about blogging! I sometimes feel like this - like I spend way too many/not enough hours blogging and I consider what I should be putting my time to. Organisation is a great way to freshen up. Also, putting away the stress you're feeling. Stress makes this not enjoyable. So stress less about scheduled posts and writing reviews and you might find the motivation to do it again. (:

It's such a balance struggle. I think we all go through this and more than once. For me, printing off a generic calendar and getting the bare minimum in helps keep me focused. I'm a single blogger and I'm learning that by NOT overtaxing myself and trying to keep up with everyone, I'm enjoying blogging again.

It also helps just to have a mini brain storming session on topics you'd like to discuss, events you'd like to do, and such. It may have been done before but your perspective makes it fresh. :)

I've had the week from 'you know where' and yeah, blogging and reading went out the window (and forget about the Bout of Books readathon I was supposed to do this week-I've read a grand total of one stinking book).Found out my daughter has to have surgery this summer, and that started a chain reaction of canceling/rescheduling a bunch of things we had planned, and we're now getting flack from other people over that. To finish it off, my blog crashed this morning, and while I was able to restore it through my hosting site, I lost all of my work from yesterday and this morning-and all of my pending comments are also gone forever. I think I'll go have a good cry now :(

Totally understandable Jenn. But keep in mind, this is a hobby, not a paid job. If you can't post every day, or every week, just don't. Try to see it less as an obligation, and more as: I want to share my thoughts over this awesome book with other booklovers. And if the inspiration to write a review does not come, take a few weeks of blogging altogether. Try a different review format, something short and to the point. I know Kimba blogged about that a few weeks ago.

I think what keeps me motivated are a lot of the social aspects of blogging. I put in my blogging time pretty much only on weekends and I keep social media up, sign up for a lot of blogger events, and tweet it up. It's my decompress time. It also helps that my husband works third shift and I have weekend days pretty much to myself until he wakes up around dinner time.

I also try to work ahead and have 20 or so posts scheduled so I'm not super stressed. I mucked it up during a busy week at work a week or so ago and ended up hopping on late at night and setting some things up. It was stressful!

I keep a calendar and try to fill it in with different colors if I started a post, scheduled a post, etc. It also helps that I have a blog partner. We both have our off periods, she surprised me by knocking out like 10 reviews this week so we are much more ahead now!

I'm just starting a new book blog and it's beginning to dawn on me just how hard it is to manage blogging and my other occupations - not to mention trying to stay on top of the blogging community and news. Whew! It's actually nice to know that I'm not the only one struggling, and to see others succeed at beating their struggles, one blog post at a time! So thanks for sharing your thoughts! I hope your blogging funk will pass, leaving you with loads of self-confidence and new ideas.

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